Isle of Man (The Park Service Trilogy #2) by Ryan Winfield Read Free Book Online Page B

situation. It’s not humane.”
    I shake my head.
    “They’re not happy down there.”
    “How would you know?” he asks.
    “Because I’m from there.”
    “Oh,” he says, nodding, “you’re the boy Radcliffe brought up. He told us you were lost in that derailment.”
    “I was, but I found my way here.”
    He clucks his tongue and chuckles.
    “Of all the wild places in the world to end up. Don’t you sometimes think coincidence might just be us living out some cosmic destiny, over and over again, forwards and backwards, for eternity? It pains me to consider it, because this life really has been too long already. But you’ll never know the pain of living a millennium, will you? Or did Radcliffe already infect you with his serum?”
    I open my mouth to tell him we’ve all taken the serum, but Hannah jumps in: “Tell us more about the mastercode. Can we get it without letting anyone in Holocene II out?”
    I grab Hannah’s arm.
    “What are you saying?”
    “I know, Aubrey,” she says, pulling away. “We have to free them. I agree. But have you thought it through? We need to stop the drones first. There’s no room for everyone here. And there are no facilities for producing the things we need to survive, either. Think about it. Food, shelter, electricity. It’s all down in Holocene II. You can’t very well bring them up here to be slaughtered, can you?. The logical thing to do is deal with the drones first. Then we’ll devise a plan for reintroducing the people to the surface. Don’t you agree?”
    I have to admit, she makes some sense. I hadn’t thought about the logistics of bringing all those people up. I have an image of thousands of them stumbling around, confused and blinded by the sun, drones picking them off like eagles hunting fish caught in a puddle. She’s right. We have no real system of government, no infrastructure, no formal economy.
    The professor’s voice snaps me back to the room: “Well, we have visited Holocene II undetected before. We control the train from here, for obvious reasons. And that’s on a different system than the drones. The transfer station is vacated and locked down during rest hours. Elevator takes us to six, where another goes to the basements. Timing is critical, but it can be done. If that’s what you really want?”
    Hannah raises her hand.
    “I vote we do that.”
    I look at Jimmy. He shakes his head.
    “What are you thinking, Jimmy?”
    “It ain’t our call to make.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, we always done stuff by vote.”
    “But we’re voting now,” Hannah says.
    “We is,” Jimmy replies. “But they ain’t.” He points down.
    “But they’re not prepared to deal with this,” she says.
    “Why do we get to decide that for ’em?”
    “Whatever,” Hannah sighs, turning to me. “It’s up to you then, Aubrey. You’re the tie breaker.”
    I’m torn. I agree with Jimmy in theory. It isn’t our decision to make on behalf of the people of Holocene II. But I also see Hannah’s point. And no way do I want to be responsible for all those people starving to death up here. Or freezing. Or being slaughtered by drones, even. I reach into my pocket and grip my father’s pipe. What would he do? I remember him telling me to always trust my heart.
    “The brain is a powerful servant but a heartless master,” he’d always say. But then I think of that day I saw him for the last time. The day he walked right into Eden to be slaughtered. I tried to tell him that we’d been lied to. I tried to reason with his mind. But his heart was set on meeting my mother, and it clouded his judgment. If he’d only listened to his mind instead of his heart, he might still be alive.
    “Sorry, Jimmy, I’m with Hannah.”
    Jimmy looks at me and shakes his head slowly.
    “Figures,” he says. Then he storms from the room and slams the door.
    I start after him, but Hannah calls me back.
    “Let him vent, Aubrey. That all can wait. We need to make some